History Creator / FritzLang

Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976) was an UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}n director known for his trope-making films in the Golden Age of German and Hollywood cinema. After trying first to be an architect and then a painter, Lang got into the film industry after serving in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, as both a writer and actor before becoming a director. In the early 1920's he met his second wife, screenwriter Thea von Harbou, who he collaborated with on all his films for the next decade. This period included ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', ''Die Nibelungen'', the [[Film/DrMabuseTheGambler Dr. Mabuse series]], and ''Film/{{M}}'', which are probably his most famous works and made him the most famous, influential and celebrated film director of the [[UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic Weimar era]].

Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976) was an UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}n director known for his trope-making films in the Golden Age of German and Hollywood cinema. After trying first to be an architect and then a painter, Lang got into the film industry after serving in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, as both a writer and actor before becoming a director. In the early 1920's he met his second wife, screenwriter Thea von Harbou, who he collaborated with on all his films for the next decade. This period included ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', ''Die Nibelungen'', the [[Film/DrMabuseTheGambler Dr. Mabuse series]], and ''Film/{{M}}'', which are probably his most famous works.

[[caption-width-right:280:A HighClassGlass ''and'' an EyepatchOfPower.]]

* ''Die Nibelungen'', 1924: Lang's five-hour-long adaptation of the ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}''. Covers two parts, ''Siegfried'' and ''Kriemhild's Rache''.

* TheRival: Considered Creator/AlfredHitchcock as such, though it may have been one-sided on Lang's part. While Hitchcock admired Lang's movies (enough that he visited Lang on the set of ''Metropolis'' while preparing his own first movie) and readily admitted to his influence, Lang resented the younger director's fame as "the Master of Suspense," feeling Hitchcock had unfairly stolen the title from Lang by copying themes and motifs. Which didn't stop Lang from enjoying at least some of Hitchcock's work; he once named ''Film/{{Rebecca}}'' among his favorite movies and admitted that it influenced his own ''Film/SecretBeyondTheDoor''.

* ''Human Desire'' (1954).

* ''Hangmen Also Die!'' (1943): From a script by Creator/BertoltBrecht.

Lang left Germany when [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Hitler came to power]] - often claiming that he left the same night Goebbels asked him to join the Nazi party, though available evidence disputes this - and started over in Hollywood.[[note]]At the same time Lang was leaving Germany, he and von Harbou got divorced; she stayed in Germany and wrote screenplays for the Nazis until the end of the war.[[/note]] Though Lang made significant contributions to the film noir and western genres with films like ''You Only Live Once'', ''Fury'', ''Western Union'', ''Film/TheWomanInTheWindow'', and ''The Big Heat'', he felt stifled by the restrictive studio system and returned to postwar West Germany, where he continued to make films until he went blind in the mid-1960's.

Lang left Germany when [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Hitler came to power]] - often claiming that he left the same night Goebbels asked him to join the Nazi party, though available evidence disputes this - and started over in Hollywood. Though Lang made significant contributions to the film noir and western genres with films like ''You Only Live Once'', ''Fury'', ''Western Union'', ''Film/TheWomanInTheWindow'', and ''The Big Heat'', he felt stifled by the restrictive studio system and returned to postwar West Germany, where he continued to make films until he went blind in the mid-1960's.

* ''Rancho Notorious'' (1952).

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fritzlang_791.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:A HighClassGlass ''and'' an EyepatchOfPower]]

* ''Liliom'' (1934).

* ''Hangmen Also Die!'' (1943).

Fritz Lang (1890–1976) was an UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}n director known for his trope-making films in the Golden Age of German and Hollywood cinema. After trying first to be an architect and then a painter, Lang got into the film industry after serving in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, as both a writer and actor before becoming a director. In the early 1920's he met his second wife, screenwriter Thea von Harbou, who he collaborated with on all his films for the next decade. This period included ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', ''Die Nibelungen'', the [[Film/DrMabuseTheGambler Dr. Mabuse series]], and ''Film/{{M}}'', which are probably his most famous works.

* ''While the City Sleeps'' (1956).

** Even in his American films, he often had this archetype, especially his thirties films with Sylvia Sidney. Later examples include Creator/JoanBennett, Creator/GloriaGrahame, Anne Baxter and Ida Lupino. Lang's favorite actress to work with in Hollywood was Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, even if they made one film.

* AsHimself: Portrayed himself as the director of the FilmWithinAFilm in ''Film/{{Contempt}}'', directed by JeanLucGodard (who was a great admirer of his).

* ''Clash by Night'' (1952).

* ''Das Testament des Doktor Mabuse'' (''Film/TheLastWillOfDrMabuse'') (1933).

* ''Film/DasTestamentDesDoktorMabuse'' (1933).

* ''Secret Beyond the Door'' (1948).

Fritz Lang (1890–1976) was an UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}n director known for his trope-making films in the Golden Age of German and Hollywood cinema. After trying first to be an architect and then a painter, Lang got into the film industry after serving in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, as both a writer and actor before becoming a director. In the early 1920's he met his second wife, screenwriter Thea von Harbou, who he collaborated with on all his films for the next decade. This period included ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', ''Die Nibelungen'', the [[Film/DrMabuseTheGambler Dr. Mabuse series]], and ''Film/{{M}}'', which are probably his most famous works.

** Even in his American films, he often had this archetype, especially his thirties films with Sylvia Sidney. Later examples include Creator/JoanBennett, Gloria Grahame, Anne Baxter and Ida Lupino. Lang's favorite actress to work with in Hollywood was Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, even if they made one film.

* RealitySubtext: Many of his films with Thea von Harbou cast her ex-husband Rudolf Klein-Rogge (whom she left to marry Fritz) as the villain. A major plot point in ''Metropolis'' is the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything work-obsessed control freak]] Joh Fredersen taking the wife of mad scientist Rotwang (played by Klein-Rogge). The statue of the (dead) wife bears suspicious similarities to Thea von Harbou, so... yeah.

** Even in his American films, he often had this archetype, especially his thirties films with Sylvia Sidney. Later examples include Joan Bennett, Gloria Grahame, Anne Baxter and Ida Lupino. Lang's favorite actress to work with in Hollywood was Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, even if they made one film.

-->-- '''''Fritz Lang'''''

->''"I should say that I am a visual person. I experience with my eyes and never, or rarely, with my ears... to my constant regret."''\\

Fritz Lang (1890-1976) was an UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}n director known for his trope-making films in the Golden Age of German and Hollywood cinema. After trying first to be an architect and then a painter, Lang got into the film industry after serving in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, as both a writer and actor before becoming a director. In the early 1920's he met his second wife, screenwriter Thea von Harbou, who he collaborated with on all his films for the next decade. This period included ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', ''Die Nibelungen'', the [[Film/DrMabuseTheGambler Dr. Mabuse series]], and ''Film/{{M}}'', which are probably his most famous works.